September 11, 2011
Living Your Vibrant Life Today
Armando Lobato
Aviva Publishing (2011)
ISBN 9781935586357
New Book Offers Practical Path to a Beautiful, Vibrant, and Healthy Life
A lot of health books are out there that will teach you how to eat nutritious foods, to exercise properly, to handle stress, or a mixture of all of these. What makes “Living Your Vibrant Life Today” stand out among all these books is its author’s years of experience and extensive research that have resulted in the practical, common sense advice he provides. Armando Lobato’s personal stories of his involvement in sports, ranging from motocross to wrestling, his experiences working in the corporate world, and his years of personal attention to exercise and nutrition all make “Living Your Vibrant Life Today” a sort of mini-encyclopedia of advice and information.
Perhaps most importantly, Armando is realistic and does not pretend to have all the answers. He offers advice and suggestions, but he cautions the reader that he is only offering a guide, while each individual must find what works best for him or her. He encourages readers to question our doctors, get second opinions, do our own research, learn from but not rely long-term on a personal trainer, and to get to know what feels right for our bodies.
For Armando, a vibrant and healthy life is also a beautiful life. He breaks down life and what we need to live healthy lives to seven essential aspects of beauty we all need, a few of which include nutrition, proper breathing, stress elimination, and meaning and purpose in our lives. He then spends extensive time providing information and stories to illustrate each of these areas that give life its beauty.
Armando realizes people who decide to read his book will do so because they want to improve their lives, their health, and their overall happiness. The potential reader probably feels something is wrong with his or her life, or that life is simply not the way he wants it to be. Early on, Armando gives these readers a motivational reality check by saying:
As you ask yourself what happened and what went wrong in your life, try to read on. I can tell you what happened, but before I do, I will tell you first that it does not matter. It does not matter what the state of your health is or your age, or how much you weigh, or how thin or fat you think you are, or how good-looking or ugly, or confident, or how low your self-esteem is. Nothing matters in the eyes of God. The only thing that matters is that you simply remember who you truly are, and who you are intended and destined to be.
Beyond all its facts and figures about nutrition and fitness, at the center of “Living Your Vibrant Life Today” is an acknowledgment of who the individual is and how to get in touch with our true selves. If we are not familiar with whom we truly are and want to be, we won’t have a guideline to follow so our nutrition and exercise efforts will support our true goals and purposes in life.
Of course, Armando gives all the information you would expect in a health book with detailed charts, illustrations, and diagrams, plus plenty of examples to back up his information and instructions about good nutrition, proper techniques for exercising, and how to relieve stress. He also includes several photographs of himself involved in sports from an early age to the present day, and from the look of him, he knows what he’s doing in terms of exercise and good health.
What I really appreciated about the book was that Armando was not afraid to state the facts, such as: “Part of the business model of fitness clubs is based on the fact that members drop out as quickly as new members sign up. Hence, they can sell a seemingly infinite number of memberships. I am not accusing this industry of any fraudulent activities, but they rely on this reality.” He doesn’t encourage people not to join fitness clubs, but he is realistic about how motivated people are to exercise long-term when they join a gym.
Equally, Armando is realistic about how practical and successful it is for people to work out at home. He knows that working out in a public place provides more motivation than working out at home because when you are in Rome, you’ll do what the Romans do—in other words, you won’t slack off in the health club like you might if you were home in front of the television. Armando’s light sense of humor quickly reveals the delusions people create for themselves about how practical or effective it is to work out at home:
I could go on, and on, as to why your home is not the right environment for working out. I laugh at shows on TV that advise people to work out at home or the office. They say the most ludicrous things imaginable. Some recommend using food cans and milk jugs as weights. Imagine, if you will, the scene, as you say, “Honey, excuse me, I need to get my weights for my workout” when she/he is cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Listen, most women or men I know don’t want someone snooping around while they cook, let alone working out, and sweating in the kitchen.
Nor is his advice always what would be considered orthodox, such as why you do not need a personal trainer long-term, or why you should still exercise even when you are injured or ill—isn’t that what physical therapy is about?—but each statement Armando makes he backs up with practical examples and common sense to put what is valuable about exercising into perspective.
Armando’s often imaginative ways of reinforcing the value of good health, exercise, and nutrition help to stamp their importance into readers’ minds. I especially liked his suggestion that we make marriage-type commitments to exercise:
I, (name), take you (exercise), to be my (life partner), to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, from this day forward until death do us part.
“Living Your Vibrant Life Today” has a great deal of additional information included, such as: how to manage stress; how to repair a “broken brain” that probably isn’t broken from a chemical imbalance or psychiatric condition solely, but also because of the nutrition you provide it; and most importantly, how to find your purpose in life and to connect with God or your Higher Power. The pages of “Living Your Vibrant Life Today” are filled with enough inspirational quotes and stories to make anyone want to take action to create the vibrant life he or she was always meant to live.
For more information about Armando Lobato and “Living Your Vibrant Life Today,” visit www.LivingYourVibrantLifeToday.com.
— Tyler R. Tichelaar, Ph.D. and author of the award-winning “Narrow Lives”
